Shopkeepers of Chinatown

Within this book are stories of shopkeepers, stallholders and other small businesses rarely featured in the Singapore Story. Though they never became well-known like the towkays, they were the backbone of the economy and community. A great variety of little trades did business in the congested but lively Chinatown of old, from storytellers and brothels to textile shops and tea merchants. But as the town was remade through renewal and conservation, the shopkeepers were swept along into a world in motion, grappling with forces beyond their control.